Defoliants

Defoliants are chemicals which cause plants to lose their leaves artificially; often used in agricultural practices for weed control, and may have detrimental impacts on human and ecosystem health. They have had controversial uses in war, such as the United States' dropping of 20 million gallons of 'Agent Orange' in the Vietnam War to defoliate dense jungle. In the aftermath of the war, it was found that many health problems, such as diabetes and birth mutations, have occurred not only in the Vietnamese population but also in the US soldiers who were exposed to the chemicals at the time[1][2].